1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to an automotive wiper for wiping a windshield or the like, and more particularly to an automotive wiper having a mechanism by which the sweeping angle of a wiper arm is changeable.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Hitherto, various types of wipers have been proposed and put into practical use particularly in the field of motor vehicles. Some of them are of a so-called "full-concealed type" in which a larger sweeping angle of the wiper arm is obtained and some are of a so-called "semi-concealed type" in which the sweeping angle of the wiper arm is somewhat reduced. Furthermore, some modernized motor vehicles are equipped with a wiper of combination type in which the wiper arm can selectively take the full-concealed and semi-concealed modes as occassion calls. The combination type is equipped to motor vehicles which are particularly used in a snowy country. In fact, in winter when the wiper is compelled to sweep away snow on the windshield, the semi-concealed mode is selected in order to lighten the load applied to the wiper arm. That is, in winter, the wiper arm pocket for fully concealing the wiper arm tends to collect snow. Thus, if the wiper is started with the wiper arm being in the full-concealed mode, excessive load is suddently applied to the wiper arm for removing the snow in the pocket. This may cause malfunnction of the wiper.
However, in the conventional wipers of the above-mentioned combination type, the switching from the "full-concealed mode" to the "semi-concealed mode" and vice versa can not be simply carried out because of their inherency in construction. In fact, some of them require troublesome disassembling and reassembling work for the parts when the switching is needed.